McCaskill healthcare forums continue today

People have plenty to say about the healthcare reform measure beingdebated on Capitol Hill and Senator McCaskill wants to hear it.

Beverly Kitchen, of Slater, asked "Will an abortion exclusion be inthe healthcare reform bill? I don’t believe in abortion and don’t wantmy tax dollars to support this procedure. Also, government has notshown the ability to administer veterans care, Medicaid, or Medicare inthe most effective manner to date."

McCaskill says there’s a lot of misinformation out there,especially on abortion. She says there is no measure that would repeal the law that says no federal money can be spent on abortions and has heard nothing to support that.

She says she represents a split party state and says she’ll supporta bi-partisan healthcare bill, not one that supports a governmenttakeover.

McCaskill’s already hosted forums in Kennett, Poplar Bluff,Jefferson County, Hannibal, Moberly, and Kansas City. She’ll be inWarrensburg and Jefferson City later this week for a total of tenstatewide.

McCaskill points out that the bill coming out of Senate committeesis a bipartisan effort. She says she thinks the bill reported out ofthe Finance Committee, which comprises three republicans and threedemocrats, will be the one to hit the Senate floor for debate.

She says when she’s asked young people onMissouri’s farms, "What’s your biggest challenge to staying on the farm?" — many expressed concerns about healthcare and the high cost of being self-insured.

Other hot-button issues at the forum were choice ofinsurance, veterans healthcare, medicaid and medicare.

McCaskill says she knows she represents a split-party state and votes accordingly. She says, "The bill i have read is the Senate bill; there are three bills thathave come out of committee in the House, there is one bill that’s comeout of the Senate."

"There will be another bill come out of the Finance Committee in the senate. I have read the bill that’s come out of the Health Committee."

The one that comes out of the Finance Committee — which comprises three democrats and three republicans — is the bill she believes will be taken up on the Senate floor for debate. All current bills can be viewed at help.senate.gov .

McCaskill also urges everyone with concerns about the legislation to visit her Web site and view a video — 52 hours of debate about this bill — before it was reportedout of the committee.

She says hundreds of amendments were filed, about 280were considered by the committee, about 190 were adopted, and of those, 160 adopted on thebill were offered by republican members. There are 13 democrats and 10republicans on that committee, she says.

"The bill went through a great deal ofamendments by republicans, it was a bipartisan effort," McCaskill tells the audience.